Time Expressions with the Present Simple

Time Expressions with the Present Simple- Speaking Games and Grammar
Presentation

Game A: Time expressions with Present Simple make me say yes game
Choose one of the cards and ask a yes/ no question with it such as “Do you feel sleepy on
Mondays?” You can put it in front of you and score one point if your partner says “Yes”.

Game B: Time expressions with Present Simple things in common game
Choose a card and try to make true statements about yourself that are true for at least one
other person in your group. For example, if you say “I always eat sandwiches for lunch”
and someone says “Me too!”, you can put the “always” card down in front of you and score
one point. If you can combine two cards in one sentence that other people agree with like
“I almost always brush my teeth in the morning”, you can get two points. If they have the
opposite reaction (e.g. “Really? I never do” or “Not me, I do three times a day”), you don’t
score a point and play passes to the next person, but you can try again with that card later
if you like. The person who has the most cards at the end of the game wins.

Time expressions with Present Simple grammar presentation
After you finish the game, put all the cards back together and divide them into ones which
are answers to “How often…?” and ones which are answers to “When…?”

Divide the “How often…?” cards into two groups and put each group into order by
meaning, with the most often top. Then divide the “When…?” cards into ones that take the
preposition “on…”, ones which take the preposition “in…”, and ones which take the
preposition “at…”

Check all those things with an un-cut-up copy of the worksheet. What kinds of words go
with each of the prepositions?

Which preposition goes with each of these?
dates

days

months

parts of the day

seasons

times

What do the different things that go with the same preposition have in common?

Why do days and dates have the same preposition? And why are seasons and months the
same? Why do those two groups take different prepositions? How are they different from
each other?

Game C: Time expressions with Present Simple answer me game
Choose one of the cards and try to get an answer from your partner including that word or
those words, e.g. asking “How often do you ride an elephant?” to get the answer “Never”.

Game D: General statements with time expressions and Present Simple
Try to make statements starting with “Most people in my country…” and both a frequency
expression and another time expression that your partner agrees with such as “Most
people in my country usually take a bath in the evening”.

Written by Alex Case for UsingEnglish.com © 2020

p. 1

Cards to cut up/ Suggested answers

Answers to “How often…?”

Answers to “When…?”

adverbs of frequency

in…

always/ all the time

the morning

almost always

the evening

usually/ generally

(the) spring

often

(the) summer

sometimes

(the) autumn (= fall)

occasionally

February

rarely/ seldom

July

very rarely/ hardly ever

August

almost never

on…

never

Valentine’s Day

other frequency expressions

New Year’s Eve

twice a day

Friday(s)

three times a week

Saturday(s)

twice a week

Sunday(s)

once a week

Monday morning(s)

three times a month

Sunday afternoon(s)

once every two weeks

Christmas Day

once a month

at…

once every three months

midday

three times a year

seven o’clock

once every two or three years

six thirty

Written by Alex Case for UsingEnglish.com © 2020

p. 2